-MEET OUR TEAM-
Oscar Houglet
Captain
Oscar's Quest Quality: Innovation
There are many components to a Mars mission. Of course, the technical and mechanical aspects, the orbits, fuel, weight, G forces are all necessary to make this work. However, debatable more important than those are the psychologic components of the crew. If someone can’t sustain the difficulties of space travel, how are they to survive and thrive on an empty planet? Sure you would have people with you but to be certain that no one murders each other you must all get along. For this reason, I believe that my innovation would help the mission as a whole.
At first, this may seem unnecessary, who would need an architect on Mars? To put this simply, Habs do not build themselves. A few weeks ago I had to create a house for a project I was working on. The house was complete a long time before the other contestants and was deemed “Best one I’ve seen in awhile” by the judge. The morning of the day I wrote this, I had to reconstruct a house, and once again, it was done with great speed and precision.
Past the fact that I can use a compass, on a mechanical level, I can build rovers out of scrapped pieces of wood, pipes, straws, wire, gears, and a solar panel. This rover which was built in slightly under 2 hours was the fastest, most reliable, and sturdiest of the other contestants. Mars could use these rovers to explore or perhaps do remote work where humans can not access.
To summarize, a combination of logic and engineering would crucially help our Mars team. For these reasons I firmly believe that I would make an excellent candidate for this mission.
Captain
Oscar's Quest Quality: Innovation
There are many components to a Mars mission. Of course, the technical and mechanical aspects, the orbits, fuel, weight, G forces are all necessary to make this work. However, debatable more important than those are the psychologic components of the crew. If someone can’t sustain the difficulties of space travel, how are they to survive and thrive on an empty planet? Sure you would have people with you but to be certain that no one murders each other you must all get along. For this reason, I believe that my innovation would help the mission as a whole.
At first, this may seem unnecessary, who would need an architect on Mars? To put this simply, Habs do not build themselves. A few weeks ago I had to create a house for a project I was working on. The house was complete a long time before the other contestants and was deemed “Best one I’ve seen in awhile” by the judge. The morning of the day I wrote this, I had to reconstruct a house, and once again, it was done with great speed and precision.
Past the fact that I can use a compass, on a mechanical level, I can build rovers out of scrapped pieces of wood, pipes, straws, wire, gears, and a solar panel. This rover which was built in slightly under 2 hours was the fastest, most reliable, and sturdiest of the other contestants. Mars could use these rovers to explore or perhaps do remote work where humans can not access.
To summarize, a combination of logic and engineering would crucially help our Mars team. For these reasons I firmly believe that I would make an excellent candidate for this mission.
Lucian Prinz
Tactical Officer
Lucian's Quest Quality: Persistence
One of the best traits to have is persistence. I think this an important trait because with persistence you can go out of your comfort zone and experience new things. Having persistence brings new opportunities to you in life and makes you stronger as a person. On top of this, having persistence makes you more confident and better with people. Persistence will give you the strength to do things that most people have never done and you have always wanted to do.
In my life, I have showed persistence many times. One example of this when I was in Greece last summer. My father recently bought a Jet Surf and was trying to teach me how to use it. He had previously learned how to ride it, but I had no clue. The first time I tried to step on the board, I fell off immediately. This happened many times and it was very frustrating. Because of this, I almost wanted to give up and never ride it again. I decided to persist through until I could successfully ride it.
This ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made. After deciding to continue practicing, we went out to the beach every morning. Each time I got on I could go for a few seconds longer before plummeting into the water. Sometimes it would still frustrate me but I ignored that and kept persisting. After lots of practice every day, it eventually got the point where my father and I could both cruise around the ocean at the same time. It was one of the greatest feelings ever; I felt like I was flying on the water. I am very glad that I had the persistence to push through all my failed attempts because now I can ride it with ease and have incredible amounts of fun. Overall, I thik persistence is a traight that has helped me out a lot in life.
Tactical Officer
Lucian's Quest Quality: Persistence
One of the best traits to have is persistence. I think this an important trait because with persistence you can go out of your comfort zone and experience new things. Having persistence brings new opportunities to you in life and makes you stronger as a person. On top of this, having persistence makes you more confident and better with people. Persistence will give you the strength to do things that most people have never done and you have always wanted to do.
In my life, I have showed persistence many times. One example of this when I was in Greece last summer. My father recently bought a Jet Surf and was trying to teach me how to use it. He had previously learned how to ride it, but I had no clue. The first time I tried to step on the board, I fell off immediately. This happened many times and it was very frustrating. Because of this, I almost wanted to give up and never ride it again. I decided to persist through until I could successfully ride it.
This ended up being one of the best decisions I have ever made. After deciding to continue practicing, we went out to the beach every morning. Each time I got on I could go for a few seconds longer before plummeting into the water. Sometimes it would still frustrate me but I ignored that and kept persisting. After lots of practice every day, it eventually got the point where my father and I could both cruise around the ocean at the same time. It was one of the greatest feelings ever; I felt like I was flying on the water. I am very glad that I had the persistence to push through all my failed attempts because now I can ride it with ease and have incredible amounts of fun. Overall, I thik persistence is a traight that has helped me out a lot in life.
Tara Woodard
Communication Officer
Tara's Quest Quality: Bravery
Bravery is the most important quality to quest. I’ve had to find bravery within myself. On my 6th grade trip to the San Bernardino mountains, I was daring to try out the famous swing that was located on the first ropes course. From my perspective on the ground, it looked a lot easier. Just climb the three, walk across the catwalk, and jump from the platform. Easy, right? Well, I didn’t take into account how high up from the ground the swing actually was, 25 or so feet is a lot higher than you think. I was terrified. My legs were shaking so badly across the catwalk that it felt like I were shimmying across the catwalk instead of simply walking. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I sat on top of the swing platform, without being clipped to cables or anything. I’m not really one for stepping outside my comfort zone normally, so this was a very nerve-racking experience for me. There’s a very small chance I could fall and get hurt, I thought to myself. But there’s still that chance. In order to calm my anxious nerves, I had to reach in and find the bravery within me in order to keep going. And it worked. I could’ve called it quits and gotten down from the tree as soon as I started to climb, but from my perspective, my bravery was the thing that kept me going. This is why I think that bravery is the most important trait for a Mars journey; it helps keep us going forward. When explorers and travelers come across difficulties in their way, often life-threatening situations, it’s easy to give in to your fears during an expedition and give up without learning the answers to your yearning questions, or find success or salvation. It’s even harder to carry on through challenges or difficult times, but it pays off in tremendously beneficial ways.
Communication Officer
Tara's Quest Quality: Bravery
Bravery is the most important quality to quest. I’ve had to find bravery within myself. On my 6th grade trip to the San Bernardino mountains, I was daring to try out the famous swing that was located on the first ropes course. From my perspective on the ground, it looked a lot easier. Just climb the three, walk across the catwalk, and jump from the platform. Easy, right? Well, I didn’t take into account how high up from the ground the swing actually was, 25 or so feet is a lot higher than you think. I was terrified. My legs were shaking so badly across the catwalk that it felt like I were shimmying across the catwalk instead of simply walking. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as I sat on top of the swing platform, without being clipped to cables or anything. I’m not really one for stepping outside my comfort zone normally, so this was a very nerve-racking experience for me. There’s a very small chance I could fall and get hurt, I thought to myself. But there’s still that chance. In order to calm my anxious nerves, I had to reach in and find the bravery within me in order to keep going. And it worked. I could’ve called it quits and gotten down from the tree as soon as I started to climb, but from my perspective, my bravery was the thing that kept me going. This is why I think that bravery is the most important trait for a Mars journey; it helps keep us going forward. When explorers and travelers come across difficulties in their way, often life-threatening situations, it’s easy to give in to your fears during an expedition and give up without learning the answers to your yearning questions, or find success or salvation. It’s even harder to carry on through challenges or difficult times, but it pays off in tremendously beneficial ways.
Lily Holbrook
Academic
Lily's Quest Quality: Perseverance
Challenges are the things that are impossible to avoid. It is a part of life that humans try to escape from or go through. Challenges can be learning to ride a bike or studying for hours to ace a test. Everyone has goals they set for themselves. The question is, are you willing to work hard and overcome all the problems you face in order to achieve your goal? Perseverance to me is the determination in a person to not let anything or anyone stop you from obtaining a goal. As tough obstacles interfere in our lives, we do not seem to realize that perseverance can pull us through because it is the key to overcoming hurdles and the guiding light of success. Perseverance is not giving up or letting difficulties overwhelm you. Perseverance is conquering even when the odds stack against you. It is finding success despite the circumstances and feeling proud of your accomplishments. One of my ultimate tests of perseverance was this past summer when I was in the middle of a tennis match with a boy who was older and more experienced than myself. We had been playing for a while, and I was getting exhausted. He was winning 5-3, and I somehow summed all the energy I had left and persevered through to end up winning the match. I have learned that perseverance is something acquired by an individual. It’s a type of habit that can be applied in every situation.
Academic
Lily's Quest Quality: Perseverance
Challenges are the things that are impossible to avoid. It is a part of life that humans try to escape from or go through. Challenges can be learning to ride a bike or studying for hours to ace a test. Everyone has goals they set for themselves. The question is, are you willing to work hard and overcome all the problems you face in order to achieve your goal? Perseverance to me is the determination in a person to not let anything or anyone stop you from obtaining a goal. As tough obstacles interfere in our lives, we do not seem to realize that perseverance can pull us through because it is the key to overcoming hurdles and the guiding light of success. Perseverance is not giving up or letting difficulties overwhelm you. Perseverance is conquering even when the odds stack against you. It is finding success despite the circumstances and feeling proud of your accomplishments. One of my ultimate tests of perseverance was this past summer when I was in the middle of a tennis match with a boy who was older and more experienced than myself. We had been playing for a while, and I was getting exhausted. He was winning 5-3, and I somehow summed all the energy I had left and persevered through to end up winning the match. I have learned that perseverance is something acquired by an individual. It’s a type of habit that can be applied in every situation.
Conley Ball
Engineer, Operations Officer
Conley's Quest Quality: Determination
Determination is a trait that is very important to going on a quest. If you have determination, you have the will to push through problems. This is usually all you need. If you have determination you can do anything possible that the human body can do. I learned I had determination when I got sick at Monterey. My family was going to the aquarium, and I was feeling really bad. I had a headache and I felt like throwing up. When we got home, my temperature was 106 degrees fahrenheit. I spent the next two weeks hospitalized with a tube going through a vein in my arm, all the way to my heart so that they could dump the strongest antibiotics they had into me. It was a very hard experience just to deal with pain and get through. This will the very important to get us to Mars.
Engineer, Operations Officer
Conley's Quest Quality: Determination
Determination is a trait that is very important to going on a quest. If you have determination, you have the will to push through problems. This is usually all you need. If you have determination you can do anything possible that the human body can do. I learned I had determination when I got sick at Monterey. My family was going to the aquarium, and I was feeling really bad. I had a headache and I felt like throwing up. When we got home, my temperature was 106 degrees fahrenheit. I spent the next two weeks hospitalized with a tube going through a vein in my arm, all the way to my heart so that they could dump the strongest antibiotics they had into me. It was a very hard experience just to deal with pain and get through. This will the very important to get us to Mars.
- Emilia Thomas
- Medic
- Emilia's Quest Quality: Bravery
The air was full of nerves and my legs felt like lead as I entered the dimly lit backstage dressing room. Butterflies were performing their own twisting and twirling dance in my stomach as I waited for the music to send me on. For what seemed like forever I was standing there waiting, watching, and reviewing my own dance’s patterns and turns. Finally, silence, the dance before ours had ended and it was time. Time to face hundreds of people and feel the burning in your lungs as your breathing increases until you can’t breathe anymore. I was on first and the butterflies were spinning more and more. As I ran on the lights blinded me and the feeling returned to my legs. Soon I was performing better than ever and didn’t care what happened as I got caught up in my movement. I became brave and blissful at the same time and once that happened the music seemed to speed up until it stopped and we were swallowed up by darkness. We ran off stage and some stopped to congratulate each other, but not me, I wasn’t done yet. I had to do my quartet, and a difficult duo in the middle where all eyes would be on me and my friend Tessa. Those big colorful butterflies fluttered right back into my stomach as I ran back up the stairs in my blue velvet ice skater costume. The next thing I know I am right back on stage the same blinding light, but this time was tinted a soft blue that didn’t scare away those butterflies. My heart was beating out of my chest as I ran to my spot on stage for the duo. I could see the silhouettes of the people watching me, phones out cameras rolling. I know I must be brave as I step to my place and feel my lead legs turning to jelly. But despite my tremendous fear I pull through and again begin to dance without a care in the world. In the end, I managed to conquer my fear and perform the best I had the whole year.
This is why I feel bravery is the most important trait to have on a quest because it can help you do things you never thought possible. Whether that quest is performing in front of hundreds of people or flying to Mars. Overall bravery is necessary for any quest because fear will hold you back and make sure you don’t achieve your goal.
Maxine Borders
Counselor
Maxine's Quest Quality:
To quest, you must have perseverance. In either a mental or physical quest, there must be some sort of ability to persevere present in the person taking the journey. Adaptability ensures that not only will the person on the quest be able to thrive at the peak of the journey, but through the entire route. I first realized that I had perseverance when I went to a school retreat in the sixth grade. The whole way there, I was scared. I had this gut feeling that something horrible was going to happen. When we arrived, we were greeted by many friendly faces. My peers knew the counselors from previous trips to the camp in question, but I was brand new to the school. We played some icebreakers, then ventured up a hill to our cabins. The door had no lock, and the large windows had no covers. I settled on a top bunk and threw my sleeping bag up. Surrounding me were people I had not previously talked to. I was shy, so even after a month of school before the trip, I had barely met two people. The wooden cabin shook and creaked whenever someone walked within it.
We stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. By the second day, I was adapted to the campsite, knew how to curate the best food out of our limited choices, how to navigate in the middle of the night, as well as avoid the wild animals that roamed. Still, I had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. I continued my day normally, with the assigned hikes and crafts and games. When we had free time that afternoon, I hung around a ditch with new friends and then some.I was invited to play football. I never felt comfortable playing sports, but after only two days I was happy to. While I was not particularly good, it was fun. Soon, I found that I was venturing closer and closer to a small ravine , where my friend was gathering rocks in a pile nearby. Soon, my friend had overshot his throw, and it soared into the ditch. I ran to get it, and soon found myself falling over the pile of rocks. My finger was shoved under a pile of large rocks when I fell, and my stomach was cut by a sharp rock. I rushed to the first aid, and I was given some bandaids. My finger was bent, blue and yellow. I later found out that I had broken it. Even so, I refused to be picked up from the retreat, because I was convinced that I was going to miss something important. I continued with dinner, campfires, games, and hikes. The end of the last night, my entire class crowded on a hill after a night walk, and we all looked at the stars. I had never seen that many stars, because I lived in a place with so much smog and lights that most of the stars were not visible. No one had ever guessed that the best place to see stars was 45 minutes away in Malibu’s remote hills. The experience was special because my will to see what the rest of the trip had in store despite the circumstances brought me to something special. That night, I became closer with my best friend, and we still talk every day. Perseverance brought me to my quest’s end, which was ultimately the goal of the trip, to make friends.
Counselor
Maxine's Quest Quality:
To quest, you must have perseverance. In either a mental or physical quest, there must be some sort of ability to persevere present in the person taking the journey. Adaptability ensures that not only will the person on the quest be able to thrive at the peak of the journey, but through the entire route. I first realized that I had perseverance when I went to a school retreat in the sixth grade. The whole way there, I was scared. I had this gut feeling that something horrible was going to happen. When we arrived, we were greeted by many friendly faces. My peers knew the counselors from previous trips to the camp in question, but I was brand new to the school. We played some icebreakers, then ventured up a hill to our cabins. The door had no lock, and the large windows had no covers. I settled on a top bunk and threw my sleeping bag up. Surrounding me were people I had not previously talked to. I was shy, so even after a month of school before the trip, I had barely met two people. The wooden cabin shook and creaked whenever someone walked within it.
We stayed for 3 days and 2 nights. By the second day, I was adapted to the campsite, knew how to curate the best food out of our limited choices, how to navigate in the middle of the night, as well as avoid the wild animals that roamed. Still, I had a gut feeling that something bad was going to happen. I continued my day normally, with the assigned hikes and crafts and games. When we had free time that afternoon, I hung around a ditch with new friends and then some.I was invited to play football. I never felt comfortable playing sports, but after only two days I was happy to. While I was not particularly good, it was fun. Soon, I found that I was venturing closer and closer to a small ravine , where my friend was gathering rocks in a pile nearby. Soon, my friend had overshot his throw, and it soared into the ditch. I ran to get it, and soon found myself falling over the pile of rocks. My finger was shoved under a pile of large rocks when I fell, and my stomach was cut by a sharp rock. I rushed to the first aid, and I was given some bandaids. My finger was bent, blue and yellow. I later found out that I had broken it. Even so, I refused to be picked up from the retreat, because I was convinced that I was going to miss something important. I continued with dinner, campfires, games, and hikes. The end of the last night, my entire class crowded on a hill after a night walk, and we all looked at the stars. I had never seen that many stars, because I lived in a place with so much smog and lights that most of the stars were not visible. No one had ever guessed that the best place to see stars was 45 minutes away in Malibu’s remote hills. The experience was special because my will to see what the rest of the trip had in store despite the circumstances brought me to something special. That night, I became closer with my best friend, and we still talk every day. Perseverance brought me to my quest’s end, which was ultimately the goal of the trip, to make friends.